1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a printer, and in particular, to a method of informing the date when a printer is sold.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a repairman or a user estimates how long a printer was used by counting the total number of pages that the printer has printed. Some users use printers more frequently than others. Therefore, it is not proper to decide as to whether a guarantee period for the printer has expired based on the estimated use period of the printer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,661 for a Method and Apparatus For Assisting In The Installation of a Facsimile Machine to Klees discloses storing a warranty date in SRAM of a facsimile machine. Such information can be used by a service technician working on the machine. However, I have not seen storing the initialization date for a printer in non-volatile memory.